Sleep
by prepare4trouble
Summary: Jim calls Toby to catch up on the latest from Arcadia.


_This was based on a prompt that was not a prompt. My friend (in a different time zone) is constantly telling me to go to bed when I'm up at stupid times. Last week I was up at stupid times and looking for fic prompts on Tumblr. I recovered this ask: "Here's a prompt for you: Trollhunters character can't sleep and is on the internet, while a friend (in a different time zone) tells them to go to bed."_

 _Maybe this wasn't an entirely serious prompt, but I wrote it anyway._

* * *

Sleep

Jim's phone vibrated, and he looked down to see another message from Toby. He unlocked the screen, his larger-than-he-was-used-to fingers felt clumsy as he did so; they were not designed to manipulate something so small and delicate as a cellphone, but it was the only way to keep in touch right now, as well as a link to his old life than he wasn't willing to give up, and so he used it carefully, mostly with his five-fingered left hand rather than the more trollish, four-fingered right. He was getting the hang of it. That, like everything else, was simply a matter of growing accustomed to new ways of doing things.

A photo of Toby and Aaarrrgghh! filled the phone's display, both grinning widely on either side of a screen from Toby's Go-Go-Sushi game. The words 'High Score' filled the screen.

The phone buzzed again, a text this time. "I'm gonna have to get the second game, Aaarrrgghh!'s gotten too good at this one."

Jim smiled, and tapped the phone to reply. His finger hit the wrong key. He deleted it, and tried again. This time he got through the first word before he went wrong. Sighing in frustration, he jabbed at the phonebook instead, and selected Toby's name from his list.

The phone rang for less than a second before Toby's voice came down the line. "Hey, Jim! Pretty cool, huh? What's up? Actually, _please_ tell me something's up, you wouldn't _believe_ how boring it's been around here since you guys left town. No battles, no imminent danger. Seriously, how did we used to live like this?"

Jim grinned. Honestly, he wasn't sure. It hadn't been so long since he had found the amulet, but it was already difficult to imagine life before. "Nice to know you're missing me, Tobes," he said.

"You, Blinky, Claire, excitement, adventure… I know you said Arcadia needs me here to defend it, but honestly Jim, Arcadia's fine. It's been about a week since I even had to pick up my warhammer, and that was just to scare off a group of gnomes that were threatening to move into Chomsky's house. Troll-wise it's pretty quiet. Well, unless you count Aaarrrgghh! and Strickler, and neither of them are about to go on a rampage around town as far as I can tell."

A mumbled agreement from Aaarrrgghh! sounded down the line. Jim stopped walking and leaned against a wall. He was above ground for the first time in a few days, and it was good to see the stars and breathe fresh air. He pulled the hood of his large hoodie over his head and pressed himself into the shadows. It was late, but there was still the possibility of being seen by someone out late or up early, and he _really_ didn't want to be seen. He was tired, he wasn't in the mood to run.

At least since he had finally relaxed enough for the amulet to realize he wasn't in imminent danger, the armor had come off. If there was anything more conspicuous than a troll skulking around the streets of New Jersey, it was a troll skulking around the streets of New Jersey in red-glowing armor.

"Honestly, Jim." Toby continued, "I have a bag packed already. Just say the word and we'll be there in… Okay I was going to say a second, but actually it might take some time to convince my nana to let me go, and traveling with Aaarrrgghh! rules out airplanes. And trains. And cars too, I guess, since he wouldn't fit; probably for the best since neither of us can drive… Still, I figure we could be there inside of a month."

Toby still didn't get it. Well, either that, or he did, and he was choosing to ignore the obvious. When he had told his friend to stay where he was and look out for Arcadia, Jim hadn't really believed that the town would need to be protected. Well, not much. Instead, he had been thinking of Toby, and his chance to have a real life. He needed to graduate highschool. He needed to go off to college. Claire could graduate early, she would still be able to have those things, she wasn't giving anything up to be with him for a while. Toby would be, and that was why he needed to stay in Arcadia.

"Stay where you are for now," Jim told him. "You never know when something's going to go wrong. I'd hate for a group of marauding Gumm-Gumms to hit the town while you're en-route to New Jersey."

"Unlikely," Toby said.

Jim shrugged. "But not impossible. Anyway, work on New Trollmarket is going way faster than I expected. Blinky's talking about getting a gyre installed in the next month or so; we're actually not that far from an existing tunnel, so we'd only need to dig through four miles of rock to connect to the network once that's done we'll be able to hop back and forth between the two places in minutes. You might as well wait until then."

Toby sighed deeply. "Great. But Aaarrrgghh! hates the gyre," he said. "For the record, I'm not its greatest fan either."

Jim couldn't argue with that. Even the thought of it made him dizzy and travel sick. He'd happily do it every night though, if it meant he could see home again. He didn't know whether New Trollmarket was ever going to feel like home, but he couldn't imagine it happening anytime soon.

"How is everyone there?" he asked.

He could almost hear the shrug at the other end of the line. "About the same as the last time you asked," Toby told him. "It's weird; everyone saw what went down that day, but it's like they've managed to forget it. About half the population are denying they noticed anything happening at all, the others think it was some kind of mass hallucination. Too bad, really."

"Too bad?"

"Yeah, because if everybody knew about trolls and just accepted that most of them were good, it'd make things a lot easier for Aaarrrgghh!."

"Aaarrrgghh! fine. No like everybody," Jim heard Aaarrrgghh! say in the background. "Easier for Jim, though."

There was a pause, then the muffled sound of conversation at the other end of the line; Toby had put his finger over the receiver. "Well, yeah, but I wasn't going to say that to _him_."

"Jim troll now too."

"Yeah, I _know_ that, but…" Toby sighed and uncovered the phone, "Uh, so, Steve's lording it over everyone," he said. "It's weird, like I said, nobody believes in trolls, but Steve's still telling everyone how he knew about them before anybody else, so he's kinda getting a reputation. And since when do him and Eli hang out voluntarily? I feel like I've slipped into some kind of weird alternative universe."

Jim smiled sadly. He knew the feeling. "How's my mom doing?" he asked. He had spoken to her every night since leaving Arcadia, but there were things she wasn't telling him, there had to be.

"Okay, I guess," Toby told him "I mean, she misses you, but she's been pretty busy." He hesitated. "I, uh, don't know how to tell you this, but Strickler's been at your house a lot recently. Like, a _lot_ lot."

"Yeah," Jim told him. "I know, Tobes. It's… fine." It really was, too, in a way. It was weird, and he didn't think he was ever going to be completely comfortable with it, but despite everything, Strickler really did care for his mother, and Jim knew that with him around she would be safe. Anyway, it wasn't as though Jim could disapprove of the relationship because Strickler was a changeling, not without being the world's greatest hypocrite, at least.

That had never been the problem anyway. It had been about what Strickler had done, rather than what he was. He hadn't completely made up for that, but he had made a good start.

"How about you?" Jim asked. "You okay?"

"I miss you guys," Toby said, suppressing a yawn. "Plus everyone keeps asking for updates about your trip to Europe and I'm running out of cool made up adventures to tell them about. But hey, there's cool stuff I can do here. Like I've been introducing Aaarrrggh! to the concept of memes. I'm not sure he really _gets_ it, but…"

"So you're spending all your time playing Go-Go-Sushi and looking at memes?"

Toby paused. "This is what I'm trying to tell you! It's boring here now! Anyway, not _all_ my time, just the nights. It's not my fault, I'm used to missing sleep for trollhunting, plus I have a roommate who's up all night."

Jim moved his phone from his ear to check the time on the display, then subtracted a few hours to make up for the time difference. "It's 1am where you are," he said.

"Yeah, sounds about right."

"You should get to sleep."

Toby made a scoffing sound down the line. "Isn't it two hours later for you?" he said. "No offense, but if _I'm_ up late, _you're_ up later."

"Three hours, actually." Jim glanced at his unoccupied hand, the right. He flexed the four fingers. It still felt strange, like something was missing, and still having five on the opposite hand didn't help matters at all. The lack of symmetry bothered him in a way he couldn't quite explain. "The whole 'turning to stone in the sunlight' thing has made me a bit more nocturnal than I used to be."

"Yeah." Toby sighed deeply. "I know. So what do you do, sleep during the day? You do still sleep, right? What about Claire, has she gone nocturnal too?"

"You're stalling, Toby," Jim told him. "Seriously, you have school in the morning. Sleep."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Toby complained. "We're doing prep for a Spanish test and Señor Uhl's definitely looking to give out a couple of 'F's."

Jim smiled to himself. "You know, I never thought I'd miss Señor Uhl's Spanish class," he said, then paused for effect. "And I was right. Good luck with that, Tobes, you're gonna need it!"

"Great, thanks. You're a big help."

"Here's some help. _Necesitas dormir_ , if you wanna ace _el examen_."

"Wait, _el examen_? Is that right?"

Jim shook his head, suddenly he was feeling tired too, which made sense, the night wasn't exactly drawing to a close yet, but he had been working hard for hours, and unlike the others, he was only half troll, and still recovering from his injuries. He suppressed a yawn. "I dunno. Could be. I'd ask Claire, for you but guess what? She's asleep. Hey, maybe you should do the same thing."

Toby groaned resignedly down the line. "Fine, I'll get some sleep. But only because I've got nothing better to do," he said. "You know, because you left me behind in Arcadia while you went off on an awesome quest without me!"

Some quest. Jim had spent most of the night, and a good chunk of the day before, hammering together pieces of wood to make staircases and walkways that he still wasn't sure would hold the weight of some of the larger trolls. He didn't mind; it was actually a nice change of pace after the battle and then the long trip across the country.

"It's not a quest, Tobes, it's a construction project. I'll text you tomorrow, okay?" he said.

Toby sighed. "Fine. Keep me updated on that gyre, I can't _wait_ to see the place. How's it looking now? Is it like our Trollmarket? Ooh, what kinds of rock and minerals are you finding out there?"

Honestly, Jim had no idea. That wasn't exactly his area of expertise. He supposed it might be something he needed to learn, sooner or later. "Maybe you should ask Blinky if you want to talk about that stuff. The place is looking good though; I'll text you some more photos tomorrow."

Toby sighed. "You can't do it now?"

"I don't have any now, and I'm not down there to take any. And you need to sleep. Tomorrow, I promise."

"Fine, Toby agreed reluctantly. "Oh, and Aaarrrgghh! says he misses Blinky."

"It's mutual," Jim said. He was sure the main reason Blinky was so set on getting the gyre constructed was to see Aaarrrgghh! again as soon as possible. "I'll let him know." Jim promised. "Night."

With that, he disconnected the call before Toby could reply, before he could drag the conversation in yet another direction. That done, he pocketed the phone, leaned heavily against the wall and took a deep breath. Not long now; next month, maybe the month after, he would be able to go home. Toby was excited about the trip to New Jersey, but for Jim the gyre would mean the opposite; a chance to see Arcadia again.

But for now, his new home needed him. He turned, still sticking to the shadows, made his way to the entrance to the new town they were building underground, and pulled out the horngazel. As he began to open the door, his phone buzzed again. He took it out and glanced at the screen. Another message from Toby. _"I just looked at the prep work for the test. What's Spanish for 'I'm a dead man'?"_

Jim smiled and shook his head. So much for sleep. Toby was right though; it wasn't like Jim could really talk about late nights. Not while ignoring his own exhaustion and heading over to get on with the work instead of turning in the direction of his own bed. There would be time for sleep later though; there was a lot to do if he was going to be showing Toby and his mother around the new town in a couple of months.


End file.
